Franchise, co-operative or independent: how agencies are structured

In this article

Written by

Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →

The name above a real estate office says less than it seems to. Two offices under the same national brand may be owned by different people who have never met. An office with a purely local name may belong to a group with a dozen branches. And an agency that looks like a franchise may in fact be a member of a co-operative that it part-owns.

These differences are not trivia for people inside the industry. They decide who sets an office's fees and systems, who is responsible when something goes wrong, what happens when a brand is sold, and what a client's agreement is actually with. This guide describes the main ways Queensland agencies are organised: independents, franchises, co-operatives, flat-fee networks, partnership and company-owned models, and multi-office groups. It explains the rules that apply to each and what stays the same under all of them. It draws on company announcements and trade press reports from 2026, the Franchising Code of Conduct and the Office of Fair Trading's guidance. It describes structures. It does not rank them.

Sources: Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld); Australian Competition and Consumer Commission guidance on the Franchising Code of Conduct.

The one thing every model shares

Before the differences, the constant. In Queensland the business that carries on a real estate agency must hold a licence under the Property Occupations Act 2014, issued by the Office of Fair Trading. The licence is held by a person or by a company. Under section 45 of the Act, a company qualifies only if a person in charge of its agency business is a licensed real estate agent.

A brand does not hold that licence on an office's behalf. Each franchise office, each co-operative member and each independent is separately licensed in its own name. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance adds that a principal licensee must be in charge at the registered office, that every other place of business needs its own person in charge, and that nobody may be in charge of more than one place.

It follows that a client's appointment is always with the local licensed business. So is the trust account that holds a deposit or rent. The model above the office changes how the office is supplied and what it pays for. It does not change who the client has an agreement with.

The independent agency

An independent is owned by its principal or principals and trades under its own name. It chooses its own software, designs its own marketing, sets its own fees and answers to nobody but its clients and the regulator.

The strengths of the model are control and identity. Many of the longest-standing agencies in Queensland towns carry a founder's name. Until September 2026, a Townsville agency had traded for 30 years under the name of the woman who founded it, with a team that had grown to 24 across sales and property management, according to Elite Agent.

The costs are those of doing everything alone. An independent buys or builds its own technology, writes its own training, and since 1 July 2026 has had to write and run its own anti-money-laundering program. When that Townsville agency joined a national group in September, its director told Elite Agent she wanted the strength and resources of a network "without losing our independence". That sentence describes the trade-off most independents weigh at some point.

The franchise

The franchise is the most common form among the branded networks. A franchisor owns the brand and its systems. A franchisee owns the local business and pays for the right to use them. Ray White, Harcourts, McGrath, Century 21, REMAX, Belle Property and YPA all describe franchise offices or franchise networks in their 2026 announcements.

What a franchisee gets is a recognised name, marketing material, training, technology and access to the network's wider pool of buyers and referrals. When two principals who had run their own Noosa agency for 15 years joined Ray White in August 2026, Elite Agent reported that the attraction was the network's buyer databases in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. What a franchisee gives is fees, commonly calculated on the office's income, and compliance with the brand's standards.

Franchising in Australia is regulated by the Franchising Code of Conduct, a mandatory code administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The Commission's guidance says the updated Code commenced on 1 April 2025, with further rules taking effect on 1 November 2025. Under it, a franchisor must give a prospective franchisee a disclosure document containing key information about the franchise before an agreement is signed, must publish information on the public Franchise Disclosure Register, and must act in good faith, as must the franchisee. Marketing fees paid into a common fund are subject to disclosure rules. Once an agreement is signed, the franchisor usually cannot change it by itself, and a franchisee has no automatic right to renewal, though the franchisor must give notice of whether it intends to extend.

Franchise networks themselves change hands. On 24 August 2026 the global parent of REMAX completed a merger valued at about US$880 million and became Real REMAX Group. REMAX Australia's managing director told Elite Agent that the brand and its independently owned franchises "remain the same". An office's franchise agreement continues on its terms whoever owns the franchisor.

The co-operative

A co-operative turns the franchise relationship around. Instead of a company that owns a brand and licenses it to offices, the member agencies collectively own the group that provides the brand and the services.

First National is the example active in Queensland. When the Townsville agency joined it in September 2026, both Elite Agent and Real Estate Business reported the move as joining a co-operative and not a corporate franchise. The network's chief executive described the model as designed to provide national resources and shared knowledge while keeping ownership and decision-making in local hands. The reports list national marketing, training, technology and compliance support as what members share.

For a member, the practical differences from a franchise are in governance. Members have a say in the group, and the group exists to serve them. For a client, a co-operative office looks much like a franchise office: a national name, a local owner and a local licence.

The flat-fee network

A flat-fee network offers a brand and shared services for a fixed charge instead of a share of income. One Agency is the best-known example. Real Estate Business reported on 16 September 2026 that the network has 120 offices in four countries, that it added 24 offices in 2025 and 13 in 2026 to that date, and that four long-standing principals had taken over ownership from its co-founders.

The network's founder said in that report that the flat-fee model and the independence of members would not change under the new owners. The appeal of a flat fee is arithmetic. Under a percentage arrangement an office pays more as it earns more. Under a flat fee, each additional dollar of commission stays with the office, which suits established operators with strong turnover. Member offices commonly keep their own name beside the network's.

Partnership and company-owned models

Some groups are neither franchised nor member-owned. In a partnership model the group and the person running an office share ownership of that office. Coronis, a Queensland group, describes itself this way. When the director of its Bundaberg office opened a second office in Childers in July 2026, the group's chief executive told Real Estate Business that the opening reflected what its partnership model was designed to make possible.

At the other end is the company that owns the brand and engages agents directly. The Agency Group Australia is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, which makes its figures public. Its results for the year to 30 June 2026, released on 31 August, show 511 agents, whom it calls property partners, generating $151.6 million in gross commission income across five states. Because it is a single listed company, its accounts also show what a private franchise never publishes: revenue of $108.7 million, a statutory net loss of $2.37 million and 12,261 properties under management.

In these models the agent in front of a client may be closer to a business owner than to an employee, earning a larger share of each commission in exchange for carrying more of their own costs. The licensing position still applies: the business that is appointed is the one that holds the licence.

Groups of offices inside a network

A further layer has grown inside the networks: the multi-office group. One owner or partnership holds several franchises and runs them as a single business.

The examples in 2026 are spread across the state. On 1 October, Elite Agent reported that five Ray White Rural offices in Pittsworth, Warwick, Dalby, Chinchilla and Stanthorpe, with 35 staff, had taken a single name, Ray White Rural Condamine Group. In August, the Harcourts group that opened a Currumbin office told Elite Agent it had more than 50 people and sold more than 900 homes a year. Ray White Queensland's annual awards, reported on 4 September, have separate categories for multi-office businesses.

A group shares administration, trust accounting, marketing and compliance across its offices, and it can move staff and buyers between them. Queensland's rule that each place of business needs its own person in charge still applies, so a five-office group needs at least five people qualified to run an office.

Dual-brand offices are a variation. McGrath and the commercial agency Knight Frank have opened combined offices under both names, the sixth of them announced in July 2026 according to Real Estate Business, each offering residential and commercial services from one location. All of those reported so far are outside Queensland, but the arrangement shows how far the idea of an office can be stretched.

How offices move between models

Agencies change model more often than clients notice, and each kind of move has a name in the trade.

Conversions were frequent in 2026. Beyond Noosa and Townsville, Elite Agent reported in April that two Cairns agencies had merged to form a single REMAX office, and in August that two agents had opened a Century 21 office in Gympie.

What matters legally in any move is whether the licensed entity changes. If the same company carries on under a new brand, its licence, trust account and appointments continue. If the business moves to a different company, that company needs its own licence: the Office of Fair Trading's guidance says a change of Australian Company Number requires a new licence application. Other changes, including a change of business name, place of business or office bearers, must be reported to the Office within 14 days.

What the model changes for a client

For a seller or landlord, the model shapes what is on offer more than what is owed.

A network office of any kind can usually show a property to a wider list of buyers and will market it in a consistent format. An independent can tailor everything and is often run by the person whose name is on the door. A multi-office group can cover several suburbs or towns with one team. An agent in a company-owned model may run their own small business under the company's brand.

Fees are not set by the model. Commission in Queensland is agreed between the client and the office and written on the appointment form. An office paying a percentage to a franchisor and an office paying a flat fee to a network each decide for themselves what to charge.

Accountability is not set by the model either. Complaints, trust money and the appointment itself all attach to the licensed business. The Office of Fair Trading's free public register shows the licensed name behind any trading name, along with its place of business and whether its licence is current.

Networks supply the brand, the systems and the buyers. The licence, the trust account and the client's agreement stay with the office.

Where the rules reach across a network

Some obligations do run through a network, and the newest of them has made structure a live question.

Since 1 July 2026, agencies that sell property have been subject to the federal anti-money-laundering law supervised by AUSTRAC. A commentary published by Real Estate Business on 22 September, written by a compliance firm as a content partner, set out the issue for franchise groups: the obligations attach to the entity that provides the regulated service, which is the franchisee's business, so a head office's involvement does not by itself make the program the franchisor's. The same piece noted that the law allows franchisors and franchisees to form a reporting group with a lead entity, which then carries responsibility for compliance across the group.

That is a choice each network makes, and the commentary's own preference, for central support with local accountability, is one view. The point for this guide is narrower. Even where a network writes the manual, the office remains answerable.

The same is true of advertising standards, training and complaint handling. A network may impose rules on its offices that go beyond the law, and often does. Whether an office meets them is between the office and the network. Whether an office meets the law is between the office and the regulator.

Reading a brand with the structure in mind

Large numbers attached to a brand describe the network, not the office. When the Ray White group says its share of sales across Australia and New Zealand is 14.66 per cent, or One Agency counts 120 offices, those are measures of reach. They suggest how many buyers a listing might be shown to. They do not describe the experience, results or staffing of the particular office a seller is considering.

The questions that do are local. Who owns this office, and how long have they owned it? Which company holds the licence? Is the office part of a larger group, and if so who is in charge here? What does the network provide that the office could not provide alone? An owner or principal can answer all of these in a few minutes, and the answers explain more about how a sale will be run than the colour of the signboard.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →